In regards to the DL hull issues: are you sure about that? The normal DLs seem to only have three basic hulls, but they use them for all sizes of ship - I've seen Dread Lord 'fighters' (tiny), 'defenders' (small), 'frigates' (medium - same hull as the defenders, but different HP) 'battleships' (large) and 'dreadnoughts' (huge - same as the large hulls, but different HP again). I've also seen several types of DL cargo hulls, including transports and constructors (I once actually had them build a starbase). In my quick test, the AI with the DL ships (Terrans) had several scouts, colony ships, and constructors right from the start.
Yes, you are right. The error might be on my side. Actually, a few months ago I found an xml-sheet which was related to the Dread Lord's ship-style; and there was a line <hidden>1</hidden>; which was labelled "0" for all Stock Races, except Pirates and Dread Lords, so I changed theirs to "0" as well and now I can select those shipstyles in the game-setup screen, too.
But, problem is, that there are some hulls lacking; right at game's start I only have the "small" hull. So I thought, maybe this has something to do with tech and started a Battle of the Gods szenario - where I seem to have all hulls available except the Cargo Hull.
I can actually circumvent this by using the templates (where there are ships designed with those hulls I can't select) and then take the design to upgrade it... but I don't know if the computer AI will be able to do so, too.
I've seen this glitch with the Terran hull in one of my games, too.
Well, on those DL ships you can only attach stuff at the end of their long & short tentacles. With one exeption, which is at the rear. Yeah, looks strange.
As for the real Dread Lords, they don't have their weapons visible, can't say how they do it....